Thursday, June 07, 2012

This has to the greatest day of Marquette basketball on TV
since the season ended. All three
remaining NBA teams have a former NBA player, with Doc Rivers' Celtics about to
try to put away Dwyane Wade's Heat to play Lazar Hayward's Thunder. And while waiting for that, watch the ESPNUcoverage of DJO and Jae on the opening day of the NBA Combine in Chicago, as
they make their case for joining the league.

While the prospects have been a roller coaster for both,
each took a nice step with excellent physical showings as indicated on the
table below. Prior to the combine, both
benched 185-pounds 17 times, tying for 2nd behind Stanford Josh Owen's, who is
not expected to be drafted, to place in the 98th percentile. In the agility drill Crowder was in the 91st
percentile, just ahead of DJO's 88th percentile. In speed, DJO was 86th percentile and he was
in the 99th percentile in his verticle, while Crowder was just below 50th
percentile of all players.

I've given personnel with all 30 NBA teams the table below
that shows the percentages in the six key measurements for the 61 players who
tested out BEFORE today's combine.
Despite both players being hurt by height and wingspan, overall DJO is
the 4th best across the table and Crowder is 11th.

The only guys ahead of him is the dominant Division II star
Travis Hyman and Stanford's Josh Owens, and Alabama's JaMychal Green. Keep in mind, the players who believe they
are going in the first round do NOT participate prior to today's combine, so we
will see how Crowder and DJO stack up against those players once tested. Only the few likely top picks like Bradley
Beal, Andre Drummond,Harrison Barnes, Anthony Davis and Dion Waiters will not
participate at the combine, so this weekend will show if both Marquette players
are still near the top of the physical measurements.